https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id586806629

we are the web
one living breath
together we are forever woven
until the end of time

(c) Maat Music 2010/2012, ScorpFaery Productions (ASCAP)

Have a peaceful Winter Solstice & see you in the New Era ~

Amy

I love this picture that recently appeared on Facebook. It could be and my sister last night while we waited for election returns. But when I first saw it last week I was reminded that when tsunamis hit Saipan we’d pull the storm shutters and hunker down with friends. Of course we’d tell stories.

One of the stories I tell happened maybe 30 years ago. I, my Silly Old Fool, and another friend were at a week-end Ilana Rubenfeld workshop in the Chicago area. It was a serious training event in techniques identifying and releasing those places in our bodies where emotions stick, causing us pain and sometimes lasting disability.

Each day before we left the work Ilana turned on the music and we danced our hearts out. I jitterbugged a lot with a young skinny man who taught at Second City. He encouraged me to let myself go so he could toss me over his hip in the middle of a twirl. I’d seen people do this but I’d never danced with someone who trusted himself, or me, enough to try the move.  Oh, we had fun!

One night 6 of us went out to dinner at a small restaurant. We talked loud and laughed a lot. One thing led to another and next thing we were all hunched under the table laughing even harder. An older couple was leaving the restaurant when the wife stopped and said to us something like “I wish I could join you.”  Her husband, in a gloomy and not too subtle way told her he was leaving! She turned to us and gave a rather sad, fluttery goodbye and left with him.

While I was working on my Psychology degree one of my favorite classes was the Bible as Literature. I could have listened to Dr. Vass read all day – in fact I fantasized about his reading to me and me alone. I remember him reading “and G-d laughed” after Abraham and Sarah laughed at learning Sarah was pregnant.

The book of Proverbs offers us a privileged look inside the mystery of God in the work of creation, which is always happening, even now. “Then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always” (Prov. 8:30). The word for “rejoicing” in this text is the Hebrew word sachaq, which means “to laugh” or “to play.” So, here we catch a stunning glimpse of God at play in creation. Quite literally, we were created in playful laughter. http://geographyofgrace.com/ws/street-psalms-press/spiritual-formation.php

I was thinking this blog might be inappropriate due to the suffering of many throughout the country  – how can we laugh with all that is happening? Anne Lamotte recently wrote in her crazy, funny, serious way, “it’s okay to be sad, scared, mad about non-Sandy things.” And I add it’s okay to laugh in the midst of all this discomfort. My Silly Old Fool and I last laughed together a few weeks ago about events that took place that night as she sat with a friend who died with her at his side.

This is not a joke; we are all being taken into God’s laughter. Yes, there are immense hurts and horrible injustices and yes, God’s laughter is comingled with tears, but not all of the world is an open wound. We are more than our wounds. There is something deeper at the center of it all. All of the wisest mothers and fathers of the faith called that “something” Joy, into which all of creation is being taken now. (Adapted from the book, Geography of Grace: Doing Theology From Below.)

I am bound to friends near and far remembering the gift of laughter during very tough times. Today amidst the east coast destruction and tough political times I wish each of us the gift of laughter.

Systemically, Social Permaculture is intended to aid Humanity and the Societies within it in meeting the evolutionary challenges of today.

Relationally, it is a re-imagining of culture, community, society, and on each of these levels, how we, as human beings relate. It is an investigation of how we want to relate and how this can be informed by the relationships found in natural ecologies, it is an investigation of the essential ingredients behind relationships which honor our ancestors, that which is true in this moment, and the generations to come.

For most of my growing up time in a small home filled with 7 people I shared a bedroom with my grandmother. I don’t remember when my mother thought I might need some space without Grandma and moved me in with my little sister. At 17 I moved right from tight family quarters into marriage and motherhood.

Earlier this month I shared space for 3 weeks with dear long-time friends in Washington. They’d asked me if I wanted to be paid to organize the imminant move of everything including collections of vintage pottery and furniture, from their sister’s house that was sold in difficult circumstances. Each morning I drove to the house on a private island to play beat the clock – inventorying, and sifting, sorting and moving hundreds and thousands of dollars of belongings onto sell, gift, donate, store, and consign lists. I was also interacting with neighbors and others who were concerned and at the same time arranging to buy some of the treasures at bargain prices.

At sunset I’d gaze up at the mountains to stop my body and my head. When I returned to my friends’ home we did our heart’s work. They are dealing with their sister’s on-again-off-again illness while facing dissolution of some hopes and dreams for their family. We are each dealing with our judgments about the sister’s wants and decisions, at the same time expressing our own desires for some of the treasures we’re packing, selling and preparing to store for an unknown future.

This past week I’ve been helping finalize that physical move as best I can from my brother and sister-in-loves’ large home in a quiet subdivision near Indianapolis. While they tour Italy I’m here to be with our father who lives in a nearby independent living center. He says I’m here to “baby sit” him. No way does he need a baby sitter but he does need the daily attention family provides. As his 96th birthday approaches I’m aware of how limited my time is with him. Dad and I are both introverts and he tires easily so I’m “home”alone much of the day.

Being by myself with no “work” forces me to not drift into diversion or distraction.  I tell myself forget the consignment shops I saw up the road – I have enough clothes. A hundred times a day I remind myself that the political noise on TV and Halloween candy are poison!

It is my turn to send art cards to my grandchildren. This gives me the perfect opportunity to practice paper cutting. I can also write to them about yesterday when I thought I heard water running. I looked in the laundry room and all the bathrooms – nope. Finally I stepped out the open back sliding door and saw maybe a thousand sparrows sunning in the trees. Their twittering and their wings rustling the dry leaves sounded just like water running!

Later today I’ll visit Dad for awhile. I remember that in Saipan after our morning walk up and down the mountain my friend Trish and I would stop for a moment and ask each other what our intention was for the day. This practice wasn’t a time for sharing goals to accomplish at work but for sharing focus on our internal lives.

Today again my intention is that when I’m with Dad I will be with him in the truest sense.  We’ll talk, we’ll laugh, and we’ll remember.

Yes, every day this month has been and is the unfoldment of grace.

Individually it (permaculture) is an alchemy of the inner world which brings awareness to the multiplicity that we are, which honors the archetypal flows of energy and information which stream through us, and which cultivates an internal system which is fluid and graceful, which allows space for the unfoldment of grace, for the release of stagnancy, and for the balancing of our inner ecosystems.

Also individually, it is a recognition of the complexity of the human form, it is a process of honoring the physical vehicles we use to navigate this land, and which are used by the land to stand up for social justice, for that which we imagine is possible, for the reweaving of the very fabric of our community. 

http://communities.ic.org/articles/1502/Social_Permaculture

http://www.toolsforchange.org/resources/org-handouts/principles%20of%20social%20permaculture.pdf

http://www.solanacenter.org/

Here is the letter I composed :  Please copy, paste and modify to fit your community!  GOOD LUCK . . .

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live” – Flora Whitmore

Hello fellow Residents of Ezee Street!  I have a proposition for you.  I am interested in Suburban Revitalization – the creation of close-knit communities, more affordable ways of living, and more environmentally friendly lifestyles.  The magic of Ezee street has brought us all together, and it is clear that it takes a certain type of person to see the beauty of this street.  In fact, I have noticed that many of us have the same hobbies & interests – farming, working on cars, design & construction, music, skateboarding, alternative lifestyles etc.    So here’s what I’m thinking…

I would like to have a neighborhood potluck diner on Friday, Sept 23 at 5 pm.  I thought we could each bring a dish to share and get to know each other a bit better.  I personally would love to hear stories about the history & transformation of Ezee street.  I know some of us have lived here for 30 + years!  We have each invested time, energy and money here.  I truly feel that the more harmonious we are and the more we “watch out” for each other, the better this place will be!

Here are my ideas for the future:

1. Create a contact list with names, phone numbers, emails
2. Get to know each other’s households & lifestyles (is anyone lonely?  Want to be left alone?).
3. Emergency planning – saving pets, etc
4. A community farm in the empty lot between Roger and Maurice.  Food? Goats? Badminton court?  Picnic Table? Parking?  Ideas? Composting?
5. Collective solar?

A mycorrhizal fungi and a poplar tree pair together in mutually beneficial relationships.

Note that an organism with 8 beneficial relationships is better off than another with only 3.

In the picture above, we have a fungi and a poplar tree… both of them are quite different but are connected; the fungi is mycorrhizal, meaning that it lives on and in the roots of the poplar tree, seeking out and finding minerals and water that it delivers to the tree in exchange for photosynthesized sugars. This relationship is mutually beneficial and, as a result, these two very different organisms are better off than they would be if they were alone; in fact, you could argue that it’s because of their differences that their partnership works so well. In this way, we can start talking about resiliency as the direct result of connections; when looking at systems we can conclude that the more connected something is, the more resilient it becomes. As social ecologist Peter Drucker wrote, coming together results in the “alignment of strengths, making [our] weaknesses irrelevant”. We can imagine how resiliency is further compounded by the addition of a third, fourth, and firth element; even more so, if these elements are diverse. Diversity creates more opportunity for connections and hence resiliency, for this reason, it is important to protect.

Above: A muir web is a map of an ecosystem’s relationships (From Mannahatta)

Above Left: A map of a social network

What takes care of an ecosystem? Nothing… or more accurately, no one thing! Ecosystems are so interconnected and so rich in diversity that they are intrinsically resilient; they are self-assembling and in near constant dynamic equilibrium. As a result, they act as nets that capture and store energy, carbon, water, and nutrients. Imagine a drop of rain landing in an ecosystem; because of the number of connections and the amount of diversity, this one drop of water may take hundreds of years to leave and through its journey, benefits dozens or even hundreds of living organisms. The capacity for prolonging the journey allows for even more connections which, in turn, allow for even more capture and storage. In his book Seeing Nature, Paul Krafel refers to this as nature’s “upward spiral”. Permaculture shows us that we can, and should only, work with the upward spiral of nature; this looks beyond sustainability and actively seeks to increase ecological resiliency.

A Social Net?

People, in addition to being an integral part of ecological networks, are social beings and, and as such, belong to social networks. (It’s important to note that social networks aren’t only online; though, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc) are tools for virtual extending traditional social networks). Because both ecology and social networks are systems we’re able to make some correlations between them; both consist of relationships and connections and thus follow similar patterns and principals. As an example, we can start thinking of a resilient person as someone who has many social supports (family member, friends, interests and hobbies, numerous skills ect.), resilient communities as diverse (bringing many people, groups, and organizations together), and resilient cities, as Richard Register writes in his book Ecocities, a place for “maximizing connections”. Social networks offer the exchange of thoughts, ideas, questions, answers, and the occasional flu virus. Not unlike the drop of water in an ecosystem, an idea flowing though a social network has the ability to cycle for hundreds of years and, in doing so, builds connections, links to other ideas, and becomes resilient. Applying permaculture principals to social systems would then say that we can, and should only, work to increase social connections and the capacity for social resiliency.

School As Ecosystem

As the ‘Social Permaculturalist’ at Jasper Place High School, it is clearly my job to pursue both ecological and social resilience; to date, much of this blog has been about the former. In the coming year, I hope to document my experience working to build, maintain and map the social network of a large educational institution. What is a resilient school? What do resilient staff members and students look like? How closely can we link what’s happening within our hallways to the outside community? In the coming month, I hope to answer these questions.

One of the workshops I went to was on Urban Permaculture, and the presenters spoke a lot about a really cool permaculture garden they had nurtured at a co-op I used to live in, Bower House in East Lansing. I’m really drawn to the philosophy of permaculture. But I tend to be inclined towards focusing on group dynamics and communication rather than on food production (if you’re familiar with the language of astrology, let me say that I have plenty planets in air in my chart but only one in earth). And I’m really excited about the possibility of transferring permacultural approaches to social dynamics.

Let me explain a little bit about what I mean. One of the principles of permaculture is that in any system, it’s best for each piece of that system to fill multiple roles. So, you might plant a fruit tree which attracts pollinators and also gives you and your housemates yummy, healthy food and also is a companion plant which has a synergistic, mutually beneficial relationship with other nearby plants. Another principle is that you want each need to be met by multiple pieces of your system. You don’t want to only rely on one food source, because if you’re only growing wheat (and only one variety of wheat) and some voracious pest that targets that wheat comes along, you might end up starving.

The thing that I think is fascinating is how well you can translate this to other non-food-production aspects of people’s lifestyles. So, the social pressure and expectation that adults should get their emotional and sexual and household-making needs met by only one person, a monogamous romantic partner, is very similar to monoculture in farming! Whether or not polyamory works for you, I think it’s important for people to get their emotional needs met by more than one person, to be part of networks of community and caring rather than an isolated, co-dependent pair. Many people also relate to their finances in a monocultural way–they only have one source of income (which is often in a hierarchical setting) so they’re dependent on that, and are less able to challenge or resist their bosses because of this. (Of course, many of those people have their options limited by economic inequality and capitalist structures–access to health care being made contigent on employment is a huge problem.) A more permacultural approach would be to cultivate multiple streams of income (and also to find alternative methods for meeting your needs–growing your own food rather than buying grown food, or dumpster-diving)–but of course privilege and access are huge, huge issues here! People with race and class privilege, as well as the closely related category of people with cultural capital and education, have a much easier path towards doing the kind of entrepreneurial and freelance work that allows for multiple income streams.

One of the most exciting things is the way this can become synergistic. So, if you’re working a home-based job, you can spend downtime taking care of your garden or making your own food. If you need less money and can work less, you have more time to do more projects and connect with your neighbors and friends and help them do similar things. And this can happen on many scales. A co-operative house can be like that fruit tree in the permacultural garden, fulfilling multiple needs at once–giving its residents a place to stay, giving the local community space for meetings and consciousness raising groups and skill shares, even providing a space for a permacultural garden in the backyard! And that co-op house can be part of a network of houses and friends and community centers, sharing resources and time and love and knowledge, building the revolution moment by moment, conversation by conversation, meal by meal.

This post is only intended to be a brief sketch of some of these ideas (an opening), and a call to like-minded people to share their ideas and resources they know about, books or articles or podcasts which I (and other interested people reading this!) can use to learn more. So, please, tell me what you think, what you know, what dreams light your heart on fire!